1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an endoscopic auditory canal cleaning apparatus which is capable of removing cerumen safely and infallibly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since no one can look into the interior of one's own auditory canal, the practice of cleaning the auditory canal by rummaging the interior of the auditory canal on the principle of trial and error has been in vogue to date. The act of rummaging the interior of the ear in strict accordance with intuition, however, cannot be trusted to attain removal of cerumen actually as expected and, on account of its possibility of inflicting injury to the interior of the auditory canal, cannot be regarded as safe.
As a solution for this problem, an endoscopic auditory canal cleaning apparatus which enables the user to clean the interior of the auditory canal while continuing his observation of the situation of the interior of the auditory canal (disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-204,647, for example) has been invented and already developed for practical use. This endoscopic auditory canal cleaning apparatus is furnished with a scraping part resembling a spoon in shape. The user of the apparatus is enabled to remove the cerumen safely and infallibly by the procedure of scooping the cerumen on the scraping part and carrying it as held thereon out of the auditory canal while keeping an eye on the situation of the interior of the auditory canal.
The human cerumen is discriminated between dry cerumen and wet cerumen. For the purpose of removing dry cerumen in cleaning a given ear, the scraping part of the shape of a spoon mentioned above proves excellent. When the cleaning is aimed at removing wet cerumen, however, the cerumen which is in a semiliquid or liquid state and is devoid of a constant form cannot be scooped very satisfactorily with the scraping part of the shape of a spoon. If the wet cerumen is scooped at all, it cannot be easily removed thoroughly because it partly survives the removal.
In the existing circumstance, therefore, the desirability of providing an endoscopic auditory canal cleaning apparatus which fulfills an excellent function of enabling the user to remove even wet cerumen while keeping an eye on the interior of the auditory canal has been finding popular recognition. Generally, for the purpose of removing wet cerumen, a cotton swab having a wad of cotton wound around the leading tip of a stick is used. The cotton swab is capable of entwining the wet cerumen about itself.
It should be noted here, however, that the cotton swab cannot be applied in its unaltered form to the endoscopic auditory canal cleaning apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned patent publication (Cited Reference 1). The reason for this unavailability of the cotton swab is that the endoscopic auditory canal cleaning apparatus disclosed in the Cited Reference 1 uses a scraping part of the shape of a spoon produced as a transparent body so constructed as to guide the light to the leading terminal thereof with a view to radiating the interior of the auditory canal fully satisfactorily with light. By merely replacing this scraping part with the cotton swab, it is not made possible to guide the light to the leading terminal of the cotton swab on which the cotton is wound.